A TV make-up artist who worked on BBC's Casualty used her skills to fake an attack on her by her husband, a court heard yesterday.

Kirstie Stanway, 36, claimed Michael Gwilliam kicked her twice in the stomach and later pushed her so that she banged her head on a door frame after a row over another woman.

As
well as bruising on her stomach, she also had a large bruise on her
right breast and a lump on her head, she told Gloucester Crown Court.

Faking it: Celebrity make-up artist Kirstie Stanway was accused of faking her injuries using her professional skills after she claimed her husband, Michael Gwilliam, assaulted her

But her husband's lawyer, Lloyd Jenkins, said Ms Stanway had used her professional skills as a make-up artist to fake or 'embellish' her injuries and that they were 'samples' of her work.

Showing her photos of actors she had made up to look badly injured
in films and TV programmes, Mr Jenkins reminded her she had worked on
Casualty from 1999 to 2004 as well as 'gory' films like Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp.

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'I need to put to you that you have faked your injuries. You are good at it?' said the solicitor.

'Absolutely not,' said mother-of-one Ms Stanway. 'It would have washed
off if it was fake. It's untrue - you can't put on bruises that last.
It's absolute rubbish.'

Mr Jenkins told the court: 'She is an
expert make-up artist. She can come up with pretty damned convincing
injuries if she wants. She has the skill and the knowledge - it is what
she does for a living.

Cuts and bruises: Kirstie Stanway was an accomplished make-up artist who was used to creating gory looks after working on BBC's Casualty from 1999 to 2004

'If you see Casualty and Holby City, she does all those cuts and bruises and whatnot. She has done some fantastic things.'

Ms Stanway denied Mr Jenkins' suggestion that she was 'a woman scorned' who had made up the
assault claim to get revenge on her husband for cheating on her with
his mistress, referred to only as Antonia.

She insisted that the 37-year-old construction company boss attacked her after she confronted him about a picture of his scantily clad mistress which she had found on his phone.

The courts initially believed Ms Stanway's version of events and managing director Mr Gwilliam was convicted in May of assaulting his wife and was sentenced to a six-month suspended jail term.

He appealed against his conviction to the Crown Court claiming it was she who had attacked him after finding the incriminating picture on his phone.

He said: 'I was woken by being hit around the head,' he said. 'She was screaming and shouting and asking me 'what the f*** is this?'"

Unreliable: Ms Stanway, who worked with Johnny Depp on the film Sleepy Hollow, was told by the court that she was not a 'witness of truth'. Her husband was cleared of all charges

Judge William Hart, sitting with two magistrates, upheld the appeal and quashed Mr Gwilliam's conviction.

The judge said there were no witnesses to the alleged assault and the court felt unable to be sure that Ms Stanway was giving a truthful account of what happened.

The judge described Ms Stanway as 'a successful career woman who knows her own mind and is capable of standing up for herself'.

He added: 'None of the extraneous evidence has sufficient impact to show that the
complainant is a witness of truth who can be safely relied upon.'